The Mansion

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Antiquity Tree

"Bloody Rose!! All is over once the white rose is thrown and flies straight into the heart of my enemy. When the petals of the white rose have turned crimson, your underling will die."

"Saint Seiya THE LOST CANVAS The Legend of Hades"

I already mentioned it in my review of Detective Conan 87, but ever since the start of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R ("The Young Kindaichi Case Files R"), I had been reviewing Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R together in short shorts because their release dates were practically always on or about the same day. A visit to the hospital of Conan artist Conan upset the schedule however, which is why I reviewed Conan 87 on its own, and today, I review two volumes of the Kindaichi Shounen manga as a standalone review, which is the first time in more than two years.

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R 6 (released in July of this year) is mostly filled with The Antlion Trench Murder Case, which started in the previous volume. Hajime, Miyuki and reporter Itsuki are participating in a psychological experiment held in a building in the middle of a field of quicksand that used to be a bunker. The professor heading the experiment is doing research on fears and traumas and has the participants dressed in clothes in colors they don't like, and uses special wristbands to monitor the heartbeat of each participant. As expected from the series, other participants in the experiment are getting murdered one after another. The problem is that the murders happen in locked rooms and with no way of communicating with the outside world, it's up to Hajime to find out the identity of the murdering Antlion.

As I already noted in the previous review: The Antlion Trench Murder Case features the most ridiculously designed bulding in more twenty years of Kindaichi Shounen history. And this is a series that has featured a bunch of strangely designed buildings. To be honest, I actually found it hard to follow, as all the rooms have generic names like "West-4" or "East-6" and doors that can be locked from both sides and more. The story reminds of early Kindaichi Shounen stories with an emphasis on (possible) movements of characters in the building, but it doesn't help if all the rooms look exactly the same, with vague nomers like West-4. I wonder if this story looks better animated: it's a lot easier to visualize where everybody is when in motion. But I know I will forever remember this story as The One With The Silly Layout.

The story itself is okay. It has some interesting points, with fear and trauma playing a role in the story, but the main tricks are borrowed from earlier Kindaichi Shounen stories. In fact, now I think about it, it resembles one story in particular in more than one way, and it's almost like a remake of that story. Only not as good. Also, once the hint appears, it's amazingly easy to figure out who the murderer is.

The Blood Drinking Cherry Blossom Murder Case takes up the rest of volume 6 and the whole of volume 7 (released in September). As part of a school Mystery Club activity, Hajime, Miyuki and Saki (no. 2) go to a hotel in the outskirts of Tokyo, that used to be a sanatorium. Many years ago, a doctor there killed his patients to feed the bodies to the cherry blossom trees in the garden. The doctor escaped and nobody knows where he went. Now the sanatorium's a hotel, but every year the cherry blossom trees still bloom red, as if they sucked the blood out of the victims. At the hotel, the gangs gets to know a group of three young professionals, who've been coming every year to enjoy the cherry blossoms. And of course, on the first night, one of them is murdered. But not only was the man found inside a locked room, a piece of one of the Blood Cherry Blossoms was also stuck into his chest, as if feeding on the man. And of course, he was just the first...

The scale of The Blood Drinking Cherry Blossom Murder Case is relatively small: with a limited cast and mostly set inside the hotel. The murders and the problem of the locked rooms are also fairly simple and to be honest, the way Hajime solves the case is not exactly fair to the reader. In fact, in terms of Kindaichi Shounen, I'd say the clueing was a bit weak in this story. We've seen much better and conclusive ways to arrive at the murderer in this series, so that was a bit disappointing to be honest.

But still, I can't help but like this story. It features something that is not particularly rare in mystery fiction, but seldom seen in Kindaichi Shounen and it really works here. Obviously, I can't talk about it in details because it'd spoil the whole story, but I think long-time readers of Kindaichi Shounen will find this story surprisingly refreshing. Feeling-wise, it's similar to an earlier story, The Yukikage Village Murder Case, with a 'cozy' story. Also, the setting of a small pension with a past and a cast of regular guests reminds of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo GameBoy Color game. A classic, The Blood Drinking Cherry Blossom Murder Case certainly isn't, but I definitely find it more entertaining than the more classically-constructed The Antlion Trench Murder Case.

And that's it for now! While the series is still running, volume 8 has no formal release date as of now, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to discuss it together with Conan 88 (which is scheduled for December). Also, because Kindaichi Shounen stories are basically always longer than one volume, I think I might actually skip volume 8 and do a double review with volume 9, because I very much doubt volume 8 will contain a complete story.

12 comments
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Thanks for the review - I've been looking forward to your review of the latest two stories for 'Kindaichi R'. :) The Chinese translations take some time to catch up, and so I've only collected up to vol. 6 - but stopped reading since I finished 狐火流し殺人事件, as I prefer to start on a story only when it is complete.

It's slightly disappointing to hear that 蟻地獄壕殺人事件 and 吸血桜殺人事件 were not the strongest mysteries, especially when the premise of 蟻地獄壕殺人事件, with the intermingling of guilt/ trauma/ psychology, sounded interesting. Then again, from your past reviews of Kindaichi and Ellery Queen, I've discovered that what you find 'easy' to solve still confounds me. :P

Of the ones I've read in this current 'Kindaichi R' series, I've enjoyed 亡霊校舎の殺人 most for its puzzle, and 狐火流し殺人事件 most for its emotional connection. I was about to comment that the series seems to have stopped, but just discovered that a new title has started: 人形島殺人事件, which made me think of Yukito Ayatsuji...

The Murder in the Phantom School Building and the The Fox Fire Float Murder Case are definitely the highlights of the series until now, and in general, I enjoy the R series better than the 20th Anniversary series.

And I can definitely understand wanting to read a complete story. It's been years since I last read a complete Kindaichi Shounen story in one go, and it's definitely better than having to hit a stop halfway through, wait for three months and then forgetting what the story was about :P Conan basically never has stories as long as Kndaichi Shounen, but at least I always get two or three complete stories out of one volume ^_^

I enjoy 'Conan', but find that the mysteries are slightly briefer than I would like them to be. I especially enjoy the 'Conan' volumes that are specially formatted with a 'Challenge to the Reader'.

I wasn't too put off by 'Kindaichi 20th Anniversary', as I was relieved that there were new instalments to the series. Perhaps the optimistic joy upon discovering that 'Kindaichi' was still running coloured my perception - but 人喰い研究所殺人事件 left me with broadly positive memories. 香港九龍財宝殺人事件 seemed somewhat exaggerated, but I thought 薔薇十字館殺人事件 was one of the stronger, and more creative, entries into the entire 'Kindaichi' oeuvre.

The first time I read the "Antlion trench murder case", I somehow felt disappointed. The trick is too simple and to think that appearance of "that guy" really makes my disappointment go further. Not to mention the "Vampire cherry blossom" uses the reasoning newcomers (I think, including myself) usually have for the first murder. *sigh*Oh well, the new case looks interesting though, with fresh gore Kindaichi used to have (with less face showing though)

Well, the Cherry Blossom case at least takes the usual format to a slightly differently direction, which is why I found that story more amusing than the Antlion one. And I don't follow the seralization, so I'll have to wait patiently for the collected volumes to see what's in store next!

Speaking of waiting for complete story, in case you don;t know you don't have to wait until volume 11 to come out for a complete story. Volume 10 will presumably be one short case and 1 semi-long case.

We can't be really sure about that. Amagi is having a 1,5-month hiatus since april 22nd and will begin his weekly release (I hope) on June 8th. There's another wait around 3-4 weeks until the next volume's released presumably, since the case after "Akechi the Sommelier", the next case only has 6 chapters and hiatus kicked in.